This should also include automatic savings deductions. Saving is a must!

Total Monthly Nice-to-Have Expenses

This is more variable, but try to estimate. Are there things that you KNOW you spend money on every month like going out to eat? My “nice to haves” are things like getting my nails done, going out to eat, and my addictions: Starbucks and Amazon books.

This does not include: one-off purchases (like a TV), major shopping trips or major travel (unless you take frequent weekend trips).

Allowance (The Leftovers)

This is where your math skills (or my handy template) come in. Subtract your total expenses from your income to get your allowance. This is the money left-over each month for you to spend as you’d like – shopping, weekend travel, etc. For bigger purchases, you may want to start a separate savings account and add that deduction to your “must have” column. Check-out my earlier post on Creating a Weekend Budget.

The 4-Step Budget Template

To make this four-step budget even better, I’ve created a detailed template (in Google Spreadsheets) for you to copy and fill-in each of the four sections. This is not a one-shot deal (although even going through the exercise once will give you a great head-start) – this is something you should continue revising over time as you monitor your spending. I’d love to hear how the template works for you if you give it a try. If you really like it, do me a favor and give me a rating on Google’s Template Gallery:

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Really useful tips and you even include a Google Doc of a budget. I’m definitely going to take a look. Although I consider myself “smart” with my money, I also have an approach that “Eh, it will all work out how it’s supposed to, even if I don’t track everything.” I know, you’re probably cringing…so this is an excellent (and easy) way to force me to buckle down.

Really useful tips and you even include a Google Doc of a budget. I’m definitely going to take a look. Although I consider myself “smart” with my money, I also have an approach that “Eh, it will all work out how it’s supposed to, even if I don’t track everything.” I know, you’re probably cringing…so this is an excellent (and easy) way to force me to buckle down.

Wha! Nah, no earmuffs needed here girl you break it down most excellently, and can consider your template added to my list! We all have our own ways of budgeting, just a matter of finding the best one that works for us. Glad you’re spreading the word!

Wha! Nah, no earmuffs needed here girl you break it down most excellently, and can consider your template added to my list! We all have our own ways of budgeting, just a matter of finding the best one that works for us. Glad you’re spreading the word!

What every college student should start doing now. Easily one of the top 3 things I’ve learned to do in my life that has had a huge impact on happiness. We all hate getting to the end of the month with that worried fact on if we will make ends meet.

What every college student should start doing now. Easily one of the top 3 things I’ve learned to do in my life that has had a huge impact on happiness. We all hate getting to the end of the month with that worried fact on if we will make ends meet.

Jenny, what you have is more of what I use and that is a spending plan. Easier to account for the not-so-frequent expenses too. Every time income goes it, it goes to a bucket and then you spend from the bucket. If the bucket is empty, then there is a problem (leak or miscalculated inflow). I cannot to the micro management as I would try to make it perfect and lose hope. Do what works.

Jenny, what you have is more of what I use and that is a spending plan. Easier to account for the not-so-frequent expenses too. Every time income goes it, it goes to a bucket and then you spend from the bucket. If the bucket is empty, then there is a problem (leak or miscalculated inflow). I cannot to the micro management as I would try to make it perfect and lose hope. Do what works.

Such a great idea! I used to try to do those budgets that are 4 pages long or you need a masters degree in Excel formulation and would get frustrated and give up on them. Sometimes I think we get so caught up in the details of things like budgets and financial planning that we forget the primary objective of the thing.

About a year ago I decided to budget myself similarly to the way that you outline. Except your template is far sexier than my checklist on the monthly tabs of my planner.

Such a great idea! I used to try to do those budgets that are 4 pages long or you need a masters degree in Excel formulation and would get frustrated and give up on them. Sometimes I think we get so caught up in the details of things like budgets and financial planning that we forget the primary objective of the thing.

About a year ago I decided to budget myself similarly to the way that you outline. Except your template is far sexier than my checklist on the monthly tabs of my planner.

i just love how you’ve simplified budgeting – you’ve absolutely started from scratch!!

so happy to hear you’ve embraced giving up “micro-managing” money!

wondering if you’ve ever been exposed to the work of T Harv Eker?

I can’t say I’vea gone all that deep but one thing I did take away was his “jars method” – think of these like “6 buckets of money”…

N – necessities (your “must haves”)
P – play (to address all the scrooges – there is value to spending money and not looking back regardless of how frivolous the expense!)
L – long-term (remember when you were a kid and you saved up for a bike?) – akin to your “allowances”
G – gift (no explanation needed!)
E – education (lifelong learning!)

and finally…

F – financial freedom account! (the golden goose!)

me think if you’ve read rich dad poor dad, you’re completely in alignment with all of this

now – i can’t say i’ve found an easy way to replicate this structure online – i haven’t found the courage to muddle with mint.com when it’s busy doing its thing automatically creating budgets (which is a godsend!)

i just thought I’d throw stuff out there – it’s something I’ve very grateful to have been shared and used in Thailand during the bootstrap phase!

i just love how you’ve simplified budgeting – you’ve absolutely started from scratch!!

so happy to hear you’ve embraced giving up “micro-managing” money!

wondering if you’ve ever been exposed to the work of T Harv Eker?

I can’t say I’vea gone all that deep but one thing I did take away was his “jars method” – think of these like “6 buckets of money”…

N – necessities (your “must haves”)
P – play (to address all the scrooges – there is value to spending money and not looking back regardless of how frivolous the expense!)
L – long-term (remember when you were a kid and you saved up for a bike?) – akin to your “allowances”
G – gift (no explanation needed!)
E – education (lifelong learning!)

and finally…

F – financial freedom account! (the golden goose!)

me think if you’ve read rich dad poor dad, you’re completely in alignment with all of this

now – i can’t say i’ve found an easy way to replicate this structure online – i haven’t found the courage to muddle with mint.com when it’s busy doing its thing automatically creating budgets (which is a godsend!)

i just thought I’d throw stuff out there – it’s something I’ve very grateful to have been shared and used in Thailand during the bootstrap phase!

I just wanted to say thanks for all of your comments, feedback on my template and ideas!

@Jason – you make a good point that this is more of a spending plan than an actual budget. I guess my hope is that we can redefine budgeting to be one big number (the one at the bottom of my template) – which is your “free to spend as you’d like” number. Budgets feels so cumbersome to me because there isn’t that freedom of a lump sum that you can spend on anything (if every cent is pre-allocated).

@chinarut – love the NPLGEF concept, especially the point about “play” – sometimes I feel like I need to do that more with my money. Now you just need to find a way to work that into a snazzy acronym that rolls of the tongue! I really loved the book Rich Dad, Poor Dad – I think it is a must read. While a little heavy on real estate, I thought the principles were so important. A must read!!

@JD – definitely a fan of “pay yourself first” too – it’s the only way to go. Reminds me of the confidence post – if you don’t love yourself, others will have a hard time loving you. If you don’t pay yourself first, no one else is going to do it for you!

I just wanted to say thanks for all of your comments, feedback on my template and ideas!

@Jason – you make a good point that this is more of a spending plan than an actual budget. I guess my hope is that we can redefine budgeting to be one big number (the one at the bottom of my template) – which is your “free to spend as you’d like” number. Budgets feels so cumbersome to me because there isn’t that freedom of a lump sum that you can spend on anything (if every cent is pre-allocated).

@chinarut – love the NPLGEF concept, especially the point about “play” – sometimes I feel like I need to do that more with my money. Now you just need to find a way to work that into a snazzy acronym that rolls of the tongue! I really loved the book Rich Dad, Poor Dad – I think it is a must read. While a little heavy on real estate, I thought the principles were so important. A must read!!

@JD – definitely a fan of “pay yourself first” too – it’s the only way to go. Reminds me of the confidence post – if you don’t love yourself, others will have a hard time loving you. If you don’t pay yourself first, no one else is going to do it for you!

Great stuff Jenny – a very sexy approach to a very unsexy topic. If I had room in my ‘budget’ *wink wink* I would totally hire you as a coach – but for now, I’ll stick with the great info your sharing here, free of charge. I need to get much better about setting myself a budget and really – as you know – it’s all about getting started. Once you have a budget in place and a template created, the rest falls into place naturally. It’s just a matter of taking a rainy weekend and applying myself to getting this financial side of my life in order. Thanks for the wisdom Jenny!

Great stuff Jenny – a very sexy approach to a very unsexy topic. If I had room in my ‘budget’ *wink wink* I would totally hire you as a coach – but for now, I’ll stick with the great info your sharing here, free of charge. I need to get much better about setting myself a budget and really – as you know – it’s all about getting started. Once you have a budget in place and a template created, the rest falls into place naturally. It’s just a matter of taking a rainy weekend and applying myself to getting this financial side of my life in order. Thanks for the wisdom Jenny!